Firefox 2.0: More Than Just a Surfboard

Productivity Tools In Firefox 2.0

October 26, 2006

By
Rob Reilly

Firefox 2.0 is now available and has new features that you'll definitely find useful.

I spend a lot of time on line, so boosting browsing productivity is always
welcomed. The two big things I liked in the edition include enhancements to
tabbed browsing and an embedded spell checker. Version 2.0 also has an updated
add-on manager that consolidates the add-on extension and theme functions.

As with any new release I did experience a few teething problems. Some of the
add-ons haven't been updated yet to work with version 2.0. Also, I was unable to
get Live Titles or Live Bookmarks to work. I couldn't spend a whole lot of time
troubleshooting and may very well not fully understand their function or benefit.

You can take comfort in knowing that the familiar look and feel hasn't strayed
far from version 1.5.x. The colors on the tool bars are slightly different, but
that's just to let you know that you're on version 2.0. If you want a new look,
go download some of the 2.0 themes. "Old Factory" looked interesting.

Don't let the little glitches stop you from using the new Firefox. I saw no hint
of instability or funny behavior. As always, the developers have done a good job.

The Mozilla/Firefox Web page team deserves mention, too, with their concisely
crafted descriptions of features. They also assembled the release notes with an easily
navigated table of contents bar, along with a good list of known issues. It was helpful.